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Post by geordiechris on Apr 5, 2021 10:37:26 GMT 1
Just spent an interesting morning sorting the brakes on my Cherry (again). I'm sure we all know the problems of these front calipers seizing when not used frequently. It was a poor design when new and 4 decades of British weather has not improved things. I'm used to stripping and cleaning the front brakes at least once a year but after a long lay-up I used the car to go to work one day last week and the front brakes were binding again.
I knew I had a pair on new Girling calipers in the garage somewhere and decided to fit them. The calipers were purchased about 12 years ago from ebay when my dad had the car. He'd used a local garage to try to fit them (he lived almost 200 miles away from me) but they had failed and for reasons I couldn't work out had taken an angle grinder to one of the slides before giving up. Back then I had freed up the brakes and left the new calipers in their boxes.
I've now discovered what the problem was. They are not the correct ones for the car despite looking identical. When trying to fit them I found the slide fouled on the disc. So I transferred the cylinder across to the old slide...but the bolt holes didn't fit onto the strut. After some measuring it became clear that the calipers are for a different model and could not fit. My original calipers were binding because the weather seal on the inner piston had turned to dust and crumbled away allowing water to corrode the piston and cylinder bore. The pistons looked the same so using the pressure of the car's brake system I pumped them out and set about cleaning everything. then transferred the piston, seal and weather seal from the new caliper into the original one and it all fitted! After a thorough bleed and test all seems well.
Brakes now working correctly and feeling suitably satisfied with the results.
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Post by gainsb1 on Apr 6, 2021 14:29:39 GMT 1
Glad you got it sorted. There's something very pleasurable in completing even a simple job and finally putting the tools away. I recall once having a sticking brake and initially couldn't figure it out. Like you, I eventually pumped out the piston. I then found the tiniest spot of corrosion the size of a pin head on the piston that polished off with some wire wool. It was stopping the piston from passing the seal. Sorted! I had such a grin afterwards.
Well done.
Leigh (Area rep)
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Post by geordiechris on Apr 6, 2021 19:52:01 GMT 1
Thanks Leigh,
There was a small ring of rust on the outside of the piston seal and with the seal removed I carefully cleaned it with wet and dry before fitting the new seal. The piston had minor pitting and would have probably cleaned up with care...but there was a new one just waiting to be fitted...so why wouldn't you? Used the car for work today and still working well!
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